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‘It’s like some magic happened. It’s so Cincinnati’

Over the past 18 years, ArtWorks has worked to turn the city into a piece of art. The organization pays artists and apprentices and since 1996 is responsible for 75 murals in 36 Cincinnati neighborhoods and seven nearby cities.

Tamara Harkavy founded ArtWorks in 1996 and says murals do more than just make a wall prettier. A mural can create connections. A mural can show a city’s past and its future. Particularly this mural because when Snell looked through time and found Holtgrewe, who lived more than 100 years ago, he found a man who would have been comfortable in Over-the-Rhine today.

“The essence of the 1870s, ’80s, ’90s is completely relevant today,” Harkavy said. “Holtgrewe had that pride of place, he was an entrepreneur, he completely was what we are now. He was a maker.”